Gluten-free Strawberry Tart

I’ve mentioned often: I don’t struggle with being celiac, except in little moments when I’m hungry and there’s no immediate fix for my craving. I had such a moment a couple of weeks ago. I was with a friend having coffee, we decided to switch locations, she bought a delicious-looking sand cake topped with strawberries to bring back to her parents, we decided to save going to the café offering gluten-free cakes for another day and I went home – cakeless and hungry. The stores were closed. I couldn’t buy ingredients. I was a bit frustrated. I made a rhubarb cake.

This evening, I was going to have strawberries for dessert. Then I saw a picture of someone’s strawberry tart on one of the celiac forums on Facebook.

There it was again: that feeling of yearning for a delicious sand cake topped with vanilla pudding, topped with strawberry halves and then with fruit juice glaze. It’s summer in a cake! On a plate! Topped with whipped cream!

I just had to have it. So I made it. I didn’t have enough eggs for a sand cake base, but one egg is enough for a crispy crust. I loved the crispy crust.

I used to make strawberry tarts back in the day when I ate gluten. But I used to buy a cake crust at the store and proceed from there. Easiest cake ever! And delicious! Now, I have to make the crust. So much better than store-bought. I promise!

PS: I am not sure about a vegan recipe for this. But I think I would try to replace the egg and butter with margarine and soy milk, perhaps add grated carrots or something similar to create a bit of humidity and colour in the crust. I would make a vanilla soy-pudding for the middle and use a vegan fruit-glaze (mine was anyway!).

Ingredients for the crispy crust:
220 g gluten-free flour mix
½ tsp gluten-free agents (I mix xanthan and guar gums, as well as arrowroot and carob flours in equal parts in a small tupperware container and then retrieve whatever I need)
60g sugar
½ tsp coarse salt
90g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp quark (or joghurt)

Ingredients for the vanilla pudding:
1 package vanilla pudding powder (usually, this is an amount for 500 ml milk, but you want a thick pudding)
300ml milk (I used low fat)

Ingredients for the strawberry-glaze-topping:
500g strawberries (washed, freed from their green parts and cut in halves)
1 package fruit or transparent glaze
250ml water
food colouring or red beet juice (you can omit this or use red fruit glaze)
sugar to taste
Mix all dry ingredients for the crust together. Add the liquid ingredients and knead into a firm dough with no lumps. Roll into a ball and place into the refrigerator for half an hour.
Line a baking tin for tarts (mine had a diameter of 28 cm) with a sheet of baking parchment. Place dough ball in the middle and begin to spread out evenly towards the outer sides. I could snag dough away from thicker areas in the center and create a bit higher crust on the edges throughout.
Poke holes into the crust and let bake for 15 minutes at 200°C. Take the crust out of the oven and let cool. Transfer to the dish you plan on serving the tart on.
Add the vanilla pudding powder to your milk and prepare according to package directions (e.g. adding sugar). Take off stove and let cool. I added a bit of extra vanilla sugar for better taste.Once the vanilla pudding has cooled off, distribute the pudding evenly on the tart crust. Cover entirely with strawberry halves starting from the center and distributing the strawberry halves in circles proceeding toward the outer edges.Prepare fruit glaze according to package directions. Let cool (about ten minutes).